This noncompetitive state
saw little of the presidential campaign; the main focus was the gubernatorial
race between incumbent Gov. Joe Kernan (D) and former Bush OMB Director
Mitch Daniels (R). Daniels associated himself with President Bush
when the President and later the First Lady visited Indiana and his campaign
ran a late television ad featuring Bush. Daniels prevailed in this
contest, breaking Democrats' 16-year hold on the State House. Democrats
also suffered the surprising defeat of Congressman Baron Hill (D) by businessman
Mike Sodrel (R) in the 9th CD (southern Indiana).

Kerry actually had a tiny
Indiana campaign. Mike Harmless, former mayor of Greencastle chaired
the effort and Erin Rosenberg, a 2004 graduate of Indiana University, took
off a semester from law school at IUPUI to work on the campaign for the
last four months. Harmless said that at one point polls provided
some optimism, but then the bottom started to fall out. Nonetheless
there was plenty of work to do such as voter registration, and reaching
out to various constituencies including African-Americans, Latinos and
labor unionists. There were 100 to 150 committed volunteers who needed
meaningful work. In September volunteers started doing phone banking,
calling into battleground states such as Ohio and Florida. About
40 people were also making trips to Ohio. (Dayton is about a 2 1/2
hour drive from Indianapolis and Columbus about 3 1/2 hours).

There were some other peripheral
connections to the presidential campaign. The
South Bend Regional Airport makes South Bend a good starting point for
forays into Southwestern Michigan. President Bush (May 3)
and Vice President Cheney (Oct. 15) used South Bend as a gateway for bus
tours into Michigan. Republicans in Evansville, wanting to show their
allegiances, went over to Kentucky to get yard signs.

September
13, 2004-LB greeted by Mitch
Daniels at Indianapolis International Airport; attends a Victory 2004 dinner
at the home of Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Tony George in Indianapolis,
IN. (Raises $750,000).

May 3, 2004Arriving at South Bend Regional
Airport, GWB made a brief appearance with gubernatorial candidate
Mitch Daniels, then boarded the bus for his first bus tour, in Michigan.
(Daniels used footage of this appearance in a TV ad that ran starting in
late October).

April 23, 2004-DC remarks at an
evening reception for gubernatorial candidate Mitch Daniels at Union Station
Grand Hall and Conference Center in Indianapolis, IN. ($)

Also:
On the morning of October 15 DC and LC started a Michigan bus tour
in South Bend.

July
6, 2004-JK remarks on responsible
leadership at the African Methodist Episcopal Church’s 47th Quadrennial
Conference at the Indianapolis Convention Center in Indianapolis,
IN. (This was Kerry's first event after he announced selection of
Sen. Edwards).

Third Party and IndependentBallot AccessIndependent or minor party
candidates running statewide needed to obtain signatures of 2% of the total
votes cast for secretary of state in the 2002 general election (29,552
signatures) and submit them by 12:00 noon "prevailing local time" on June
30, 2004.

Candidate Notes>Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh
was subject of a minor amount of speculation as a possible running mate
for Sen. Kerry.>Libertarian nominee Michael
Badnarik was born in Hammond and went to Indiana University. His
mother, Elaine, was the Libertarians' 2004 candidate for Lieutenant Governor
in Indiana.

April 24-25, 2004April 24-Rendezvous with Ralph-thank
you meeting with contributors at University Place Conference Center and
Hotel in Indianapolis.-Speech, media availability,
book signing at Indiana University-Perdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
in Indianapolis.Drive to Bloomington.-Campaign speech/meeting
with volunteers, book signing at IU in Bloomington.April 25-Breakfast with volunteers,
book signing at TGI Friday's Restaurant in Mishawaka.